Pick-up trucks and the like with truck beds have become popular vehicles for transportation of cargo. The metal surfaces of the truck beds are generally finished with paint by the manufacturer. To protect these surfaces from the weather, from the impact and scuffing of cargo, and to mask surfaces that may have already been damaged, truck bed liners have become increasingly popular. Such liners are usually of one piece plastic construction, and are formed to fit inside the truck bed and generally conform in size and shape to the truck bed, such that the painted metal surface of the truck bed is covered and protected, while retaining most of the cargo capacity of the truck bed. Although such truck bed liners have usually been fastened to the truck cargo bed by bolt or screw fasteners extending through the liner and the side or front walls and rails of the truck cargo bed, pick-up truck owners are increasingly desirous of obtaining non-invasive fasteners which do not require that holes be drilled in the truck cargo bed at the time of installation.
Other fasteners in the prior art are difficult to manipulate and require large holes in the wall of the truck liner. The fasteners sometimes protrude off of the wall of the truck liner, causing difficulties when cargo is slid against the walls.
Another problem that is especially prominent in truck liners that fit over the rails that bound the side walls of truck beds, is that the use of screw or bolt fasteners to rigidly secure the liner flange to the top of the wall may cause distortion and warpage of the liner flange, due to the differing coefficients of heat expansion of the plastic liner and metal side walls. Such liner flanges present an aesthetically undesirable appearance, and cause gaps between the liner and the truck bed which will more easily admit moisture and debris.
Accordingly, a need has existed for non-invasive fasteners that do not require holes in the surface of the truck bed, do not damage the truck bed liner or the cargo that may be contained within the bed, and will fasten a truck bed liner securely within a truck bed without distortion of the liner flanges.